Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

 Well, last Saturday I had a stroke caused by my irregular heartbeat.  I  was in the hospital until yesterday.  I'm grateful to have the drug that under the hour window to stop the bleeding.  I'm recovering well with lots of suppport and many doctors appointments!  I am so grateful for more chance at life and friends and family  Our kids rallied around  us and we feel loved and comforted.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

We had a relaxing time at the cabin and the weather was nice enough for just a light jacket.  There are still lumps of snow everywhere, mostly dirty, but they are melting quickly.  Our grandson tried to make snowballs and sled on a saucer, but we would have had to drive him to better snow, and we all felt like not getting in the car while we were there.  No wildflowers yet, but there were beautiful butterflies around, and one was an amazing orange pattern, not a Monarch but even more spectacular, and it landed on our grandson and stayed for a few minutes.  I believe that had something to do with peanut butter and jelly sticky fingers.  We cooked three luscious meals:  salmon, then chicken pilliard, then turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  We made big breakfasts also.  Every morning we took a walk, then came back for lunch and sat on the deck in the afternoon.  I played many games of dominoes with my grandson, board games, and brought out the miniature fairy creatures, then the playground playmobil toys, then the horse and cattle playmobil, then I watched him play rockets, bunny family in the woods and other inventions.  

My husband can't sleep at the cabin, and he kept me awake as we rested on the pullout sofa bed, but despite his restlessness, I awoke ready to go every morning.  He slept until nine thirty this morning, and he's much less grumpy, but I'm still annoyed with him.  He often doesn't sleep well even at home, and he likes to tell me about it.  I figure it's his problem to solve, and the conversation is old.  My sympathy has dwindled over time.  Nothing I've ever suggested has helped or he won't try it, so I'm way done.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

 We had a pleasant women's group outside on a patio, and we were more relaxed.  I believe we are more comfortable with the pandemic at this moment.  We know about what is happening in Britain, but are more concerned about the Ukraine.   I felt more detached than usual, but maybe because I simply had nothing to say.  I encouraged another member to speak up about an issue that another member hadn't been present to hear about, and I was glad I did, because the member got more useful feedback.  I was supporting her, and not listening to myself.  But I also noticed another member seemed to dominate, and I took note of that.  I won't take any action, but I'm aware.  More is learned by me when I listen, rather than talk.  And I'm grateful to be in a position where I don't NEED to talk.  I'm okay, and looking forward to some days at the cabin with my older son, his wife, son and my husband.  There may even be lupine already!

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

 My husband and I picked up two cane chairs that had been repaired.  One my grandson stood on and the other my older son sat on.  Over the thirty plus years we've only had to repair two other chairs, and we have ten, for our dining room.  I love repairing over replacing.  These chairs have character.  They are Victorian, and are actually quite comfortable.  It's fun to go into the shop, as the place is chock a block with old furniture and gourds made into totem poles, sculptures, lights and other unidentifiable objects.  We are still waiting on the repair of the bench memorializing our daughter, and it's been six weeks, but the guy said maybe another month.  They are looking for wood that matches.  Anyway, it's like stepping into a Dickensonian world.  I had a similar experience when I went into a State shop in Mysore, India many years ago.  I felt the same feeling:  in a Victorian world with papers and stations and protocols that were from a civilization now gone.  It takes a very long time and longer wait to transact your business, and other customers are waiting on the sidewalk, as they cannot fit in the shop.  I, for one am charmed, but perhaps my husband, not a literature professor, is less so.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Well, speaking of right speech, Jane Campion blew it with her unconscious racism and eliltism. I just want to know why these actors don't write an acceptance speech ahead of time and run it by their handlers? We wouldn't have experiencedd the big reveal. She actually thinks her upper class priviledged background and white skin means she's struggled as much as a black woman from the lower class who has to run the gaunlet of racist and sexist remarks every day of her life. And people wonder why feminism is divided: It's divided between women of color who face racial and sexist behavior every day of their lives and women who think their brand of suffering is eqivalent to those who are other in more than one way. Thank goodness there are so many women writers of color telling it like it is these days, speaking for themselves and fed up with others speaking for them. What is sad is that Jane Campion had an opportunity to represent women overcoming sexism, but she really only was thinking of "her own kind", not the vast population of non-white women who face discrimination every waking moment of their lives. For them there is no repreive. Their color tells the story.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I've been listening to Rufus Wainright this afternoon. He has this doleful sound that is also funny, kind of like Tom Waits. He makes me smile. My friend and I went to an outlet store this morning, and, as usual, I did better than she. I cam away with two sweaters, a pullover sweatshirt aand sweatpants that don't look like sweatpants. She found only two replacement pairs of black straight legged pants. We're both very short, but she is curvy and I am straight up and down. Evidently it helps me fit into clothes better, or maybe she is more discerning. She was a doctor and had to wear classic, elegant clothes, while I was a teacher, and lived in longish skirts, tees or sweaters and a blazer. Now I never wear blazers or long skirts, and she never wears elegant outfits. I guess we're fish out of water. I now wear jeans and sweaters with jackets, while she is still more classy, tending to white and neutrals. I'm a gaudy bird by comparison. We still kind of look like what we were: a doctor and a teacher, but gone to seed.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I had fun this morning going with my daughter to Target. I purchased three $5 tee shirts, cards, printer paper, and various non-essential items as well as stocking up for the cabin, where we're going with our older son, daughter-in-law and grandson for three nights. We took a long time, and that allowed me to remember I've been needing a new glass pitcher for ice tea, and oven mitts, and Easter items for the grandkids. Then we ate lunch with my husband, outside on a cloudy day, but it felt fine, as that is what I'm now used to: eating with a jacket on. I was supposed to walk with a friend, but she was not feeling well, and we can always go another day. I've been trying to give her a book she wanted to read, but it's not worth a trip in the car to drop it off. Or am I lazy? Well, it's true that errands I used to accomplish without a thought now stop me in my tracks. If it involves getting in the car, I put it off. I'm turning into a sloth. Oh, well.